12 iPhone Tricks You Didn’t Know Your iPhone Could Do

Discovering new iPhone features is a great way to spice things up when interacting with your device. Not only that, but finding out about a new feature could even make your iPhone-using experience more productive. It’s important to remember that finding new features isn’t instantaneous—it can take months before you’ll encounter a new feature, often by mistake. No worries, Lifehack is here to help you discover new features to enhance your iPhone experience.

Take Photos with Headphone

Let’s start with something simple. When taking photos, it is important to remember that despite the advanced features that come with the iPhone camera, it is still an iPhone. There are times when photos become jittery, but one way to lessen the possibility of blurry photos is to take photos by using your headphones as a shutter button. When in the camera app, simply press the center of the headphones and the photo is taken.

Boost Photos HDR

HDR stands for High-dynamic range photos. What this technology essentially does is take two photos, match both of their best qualities together, and offer up a stunning photo in about 3-5 seconds. The iPhone allows you to take these type of photos by going into the camera app, clicking “Options” at the top center, and switching on “HDR”. It’s important to remember that HDR automatically turns off when you adjust flash settings, and HDR automatically adjusts lighting, so put this into consideration as well.

Define Terms Dictionary

Advertising

If you are like me, you try to have the least amount of applications as possible, especially if the iPhone—from a native app—does something just as well. This is the case with word definitions on iPhone. Simply press and hold on a word to highlight, using the blue circles to narrow down to a single word, then clicking “Define”. From there, the pronunciation, part of speech, and definition along with an example appears. It’s simple, but sweet.

More Access with AssistiveTouch

Apple has successfully made iPhone more accessible for people with disabilities. Through the Assistance feature in settings, seeing- and hearing-impaired people can use features that help them navigate. Luckily, you don’t have to be differently-abled to take use of these features.

When in the accessibility section (General > Accessibility), you’ll find the “AssistiveTouch” feature. This allows you to have a button available to easily access Siri, favorites and the home screen. In “device options”, you can do everything from taking a screenshot to rotating your device without doing anything more than clicking a button.

Get Notified with LED Alerts

Advertising

Blackberry and other devices make it easy to know when you have a notification with the use of the red notification light at the top left, and you may be surprised to learn that the iPhone has a notification option as well. In Accessibility, you can have your iPhone’s camera flash go off when you have a notification. Simply go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Activate “LED Flash for Alerts”.

Read Next

Scroll to Top – Faster

When reading text or scrolling through a web page, the hardest part is having to get to the top. It’s time consuming and involves a lot of thumb movement. Why go through the trouble when you can quickly scroll to the top with one tap? First, find the top tab bar, this is where you’ll find signal strength, time, and battery life. Then, all you have to do is click that area.

Quick Access When Locked

A locked iPhone shouldn’t have to stop you from quickly being able to do common iPhone tasks. Two options you have when your iPhone is locked are Siri access, and photo taking. You can activate Siri as normal by pressing the home button twice, and to take a photo, just find the camera icon at the bottom right, then press and flick all the way up.

Hide Native Apps

Advertising

The App Store offers so many ways to make your iPhone work for you. You can find apps that make tasks simpler to do or more advanced, and as a result, native apps that come with the iPhone can become unnecessary. Leaving them out in the open can become an eyesore and takes up space.

What can be your saving grace? You may be be surprised to learn that Parental Controls can help. When iPhone restrictions are enabled, that prevents access by essentially hiding the app. You can do the same by going to Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Enter Your Password > Switch toggles off to enable restrictions.

Emoticons Galore

The second best way individuals find ways to express emotions from afar is through the use of emoticons., but the text emoticons don’t cut it nowadays. iPhone allows you to have emoticons on board, without having to download an app. Simply go to the keyboard settings of iPhone (Settings > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard… > Emoji). When you are ready to use it, simply bring up the keyboard, then press and hold the globe at the lower left until you see Emoji. Click on that.

Know When iMessages are Read

Advertising

Whenever you are annoyed about not hearing back from someone you’ve messaged, iMessage offers a great solution: through the use of Read Receipts, you can view when a message has been read and at what time/date. To activate, go to Settings > Messages > and toggle on Send Read Receipts. This not only allows you to know, but also allows the recipient to know you’ve read their message.

iCloud Reading List

The last lesser-known feature of iPhone is the iCloud Reading List. When you are visiting a webpage on your Mac, you may want to finish enjoying the page or news article on your iPhone. If both devices are connected to the same iCloud account, this is possible. Once iCloud is set up on your Mac and iPhone, just go to Safari > Bookmarks icon > then iCloud Tabs. Separated by device, you will see a list of the active tabs on that device that you can view on your iPhone.

Switching Keyboard Quickly

When you want to type a number, it is inconvenient to switch to numbers, type one number and then switch back to normal keyboard. If you press and hold the number key and then slide to the number and lift your finger off, it will type the number and automatically switch back to previous keyboard.

Secret and lesser-known features are a great way to make interacting with your iPhone more productive and fun. Let us know in the comments which feature you were most surprised/excited to learn about.

Best 5 Language Learning Apps to Easily Master a New Language

Learning a new language is no easy feat. While a language instructor is irreplaceable, language learning apps have come to revolutionize a lot of things and it has made language learning much easier. Compared to language learning websites, apps offer a more interactive experience to learn a new language.

The following language learning apps are the top recommended apps for your language learning needs:

1. Duolingo

Duolingo is a very successful app that merged gamification and language learning. According to Expanded Ramblings, the app now counts with 300 million users.

Duolingo offers a unique concept, an easy-to-use app and is a great app to accompany your language acquisition journey. The courses are created by native speakers, so this is not data or algorithm-based.

The app is free and has the upgrade options with Duolingo Plus for $9.99, which are add free lessons. The mobile app offers 25 languages and is popular for English-speaking learners learning other languages.

2. HelloTalk

HelloTalk aims to facilitate speaking practice and eliminate the stresses of a real-time and life conversation. The app allows users to connect to native speakers and has a WhatsApp like chat that imitates its interface.

There is a perk to this app. The same native speakers available also want to make an even exchange and learn your target language, so engagement is the name of the game.

What’s more, the app has integrated translation function that bypasses the difficulties of sending a message with a missing word and instead fills in the gap.

3. Mindsnacks

Remember that Duolingo has integrated gamification in language learning? Well, Mindsnacks takes the concept to another level. There is an extensive list of languages available within the app comes with eight to nine games designed to learn grammar, vocabulary listening.

4. Busuu

Bussu is a social language learning app. It is available on the web, Android, and iOS. It currently supports 12 languages and is free.

Advertising

The functionality allows users to learn words, simple dialogues and questions related to the conversations. In addition, the dialogues are recorded by native speakers, which brings you close to the language learning experience.

When you upgrade, you unlock important features including course materials. The subscription is $17 a month.

5. Babbel

Babbel is a subscription-based service founded in 2008. According to LinguaLift, it is a paid cousing of Duolingo. The free version comes with 40 classes, and does not require you to invest any money.

Each of the classes starts with with a sequential teaching of vocabulary with the help of pictures. The courses are tailor made and adapted to the students’ level, allowing the learning to be adjusted accordingly.

Advertising

If you started learning a language and stopped, Babbel will help you pick up where you started.

Takeaways

All the apps recommended are tailored for different needs, whether you’re beginning to learn a language or trying to pick back up one. All of them are designed by real-life native speakers and so provide you with a more concrete learning experience.

Since these apps are designed to adapt to different kinds of learning styles, do check out which one is the most suitable for you.